Canning Stewed Tomatoes

Every year, Maryanne and I put in a garden. This year, we've had a lot of cloudy, rainy weather and the plants have been suffering for it. None of our pepper plants produced anything, for example, and our eggplants were overrun by some kind of grub that burrowed into the fruit and ruined most of them.

Our tomatoes struggled this year, too. We've had a great many tomatoes rot on the vines before being anywhere close to ripe, and now the plants are dying off almost a month early with greenies still clinging to them (conditions that are duplicated even on the commercial farms here in the Valley.)

Even with the less-than-ideal conditions, though, we're still loaded with a huge crop of tomatoes, because we always set enough plants to supply us with enough fruit to eat, can, and give away to our families. And as usual, almost all of the tomatoes have come ripe at the same time. When that happens, it's time to break out the jars and the canning kettles and get to work.

Throughout the fall and winter, our favorite meals are stews and soups that are often improved by a bit of tomato in the gravy or broth. We could simply buy cans of processed tomatoes, but homemade is much better and after all, we have a surplus right now that can be put up for later. Over the years, we've decided that stewed tomatoes fit our needs best of all.

Stewed Tomatoes

1 gallon tomatoes - peeled, cored, and chopped
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery (including leaves if desired)
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 cup sugar

Place all ingredients in a heavy, non-reactive stockpot and bring to a simmer. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Pack hot jars with prepared tomato mixture, leaving ½-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles from jars by slipping a knife along the inside of the jar. Wipe jar rims with a damp cloth or paper towel before capping. Process in a pressure canner: 15 minutes for pints, 20 minutes for quarts, at 10 pounds pressure.

Notes:

1. You can vary the flavor of these tomatoes by adding herbs - for example, putting a few fresh basil leaves at the bottom of a jar before filling them gives the finished product a delicious flavor.
   
2. Add a cup of chopped red or green peppers to the batch for more variety.
3. To make spicy stewed tomatoes, drop a couple hot peppers into the bottom of each jar before filling.
4. You may leave out the sugar if you like, but the small amount in this recipe enhances the natural flavor of the tomatoes and is not noticeable as a "sweet" flavor in the overall batch.

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